can hear the priest, like one in a trance,
speaking high and strange. 'It is the Mountain of God, he said, 'which
lies a little way further. There may be seen the heavenly angels
ascending and descending.'"

Raleigh shook his head. "Madness, Jasper--the madness begot of too
much toil... I know it... And yet I do not know. 'Tis not for me to
set limits to the marvels that are hid in that western land. What next,
man?"

"In the small hours of the morning the priest died. Likewise our two
sick. We dug graves for them, and the Captain bade me say prayers over
them. The nine of us left were shaking with a great awe. We felt lifted
up in bodily strength, as if for a holy labour. Captain Bovill's stout
countenance wore an air of humility. 'We be dedicate,' he said, 'to some
high fortune. Let us go humbly and praise God.' The first steps we took
that morning we walked like men going into church. Up a green valley we
journeyed, where every fruit grew and choirs of birds sang--up a crystal
river to a cup in the hills. And I think there was no one of us but
had his mind more on the angels whom the priest had told of than on the
golden kings."

Raleigh had raised himself from the couch, and sat with both elbows
on the table, staring hard at the speaker. "You found them? The gold
kings?"

"We found them. Before noon we came into a city of tombs. Grass grew
in the streets and courts, and the bronze doors hung broken on their
hinges. But no wild things had laired there. The place was clean and
swept and silent. In each dwelling the roof was of beaten gold, and the
square pillars were covered with gold plates, and where the dead sat
was a wilderness of jewels.... I tell you, all the riches that Spain has
drawn from all her Indies since the first conquistador set foot in them
would not vie with the preciousness of a single one among those dead
kings' houses."

"And the kings?" Raleigh interjected.

"They sat stiff in gold on their thrones, their bodies fashioned in
the likeness of men. But they had no faces only golden plates set with
gems."

"What fortune! What fortune! And what did you then?"

"We went mad." The seaman's voice was slow and melancholy. "We, who
an hour before had been filled with high contemplations, went mad like
common bravos at the sight of plunder. No man thought of the greater
treasure which these gold things warded. We laughed and cried like
children, and tore at the plated dead.... I mind how I wrenc